--- Atrog ---

Atrog was about to enter Rumor's Mill for his farewell party. It was supposed to be a surprise to him, but with how many friends he had, it was inevitable that one of them would spoil the surprise for him, and so he knew what they were planning for him in advance. It made him happy, to be this appreciated. He had heard of the phrase 'no good deed goes unpunished', but that was not his experience. He pitied the people for whom this saying held true, but in his experience every good deed he did earned him more friends, and more favors. What goes around, comes around.

When he reached the door to the bar, he found Maru standing in front of it.

"I'm in." The tiefling told him.

He fought down the urge to ask if she was sure. He had spent hours explaining their upcoming mission to her, and how she might be able to join them. She matched the strange and, according to Pebble, vaguely defined criteria that Lilian's Plot Hole hole required.

He had not asked her to join him. It was a suicidal mission and asking could have been seen as a demand. But she was also a soldier and knew what she was doing, and as dangerous as this mission was, it also presented an immense opportunity to strike back at the Living City. He could not in good conscience keep this secret from her, even though he loved her and did not want her to risk her life.

It was therefore with mixed feelings that he embraced and kissed her.

--- Galanys ---

"We hope that everything has been to your liking, your highness?" The village elder asked Xilly.

"It's fine." She replied curtly, clearly not interested in holding a conversation with the man. He had spent the last two hours brown-nosing her, and it was clearly getting on her nerves.

Five hours ago, Galanys had mentioned off-handedly that she wanted to visit her parents and some childhood friends of hers before they left for Akash. Xilly had immediately offered to fly her there on the Genesis Wyvern, and Galanys had taken her up on the offer.

Seeing the village elders' reaction when the wyvern landed was a sight to behold, and one that she would never forget. Granted, she never forgot anything at all, so that was not unusual, but it had been funny regardless.

The same elders who had virtually banished her from her home in order to appease the visiting Ossorian necromancer were now utterly terrified to see her traveling in the company of foreign royalty. The fact that she herself was now single-handedly more powerful than all the guards in the village put together probably hadn't even sunk in yet, either. Only one of the elders dared to speak at all, and as annoying as his attempts to curry favor with Xilly were, at least it was slightly less pathetic than everyone else's silence.

It felt difficult for Galanys to process that the subservient people in front of her were the same people who held such power over her just a few months ago, when they forced her out of the village she had grown up in.

At least her parents were still the way she remembered them: Well-meaning, but dull.

"We are so happy to see that you travel in such esteemed company now, Galanys." Her father said.

She did not see Xilly's reaction, but she imagined she was probably rolling her eyes at the praise.

"You must understand, Galanys." Her mother added. "We were just waiting for the elders to calm down. We would have brought you back in a year, at most."

She was certain that her mother really believed that, just as she was certain that the elders would never have changed their minds.

"I know." She replied with a fake smile.

There were many other things she could have replied. But what would be the point in arguing? For all that her mother had been talking rhetorically, Galanys did understand. The Law of Adversity had boosted her understanding of psychology along with everything else, and at this point she likely understood her parents better than they understood themselves.

Not to put too fine a point to it, but they were cowards. They never took initiative, and always hoped for things to work out on their own. They never took the time to reflect, or tried to improve themselves and change their lot in life. Life had dealt them a bad hand to be sure, but they never worked to change this and just accepted that the world was unfair towards them.

Dov must never meet them. She would quite literally hate them religiously.

There was a lot she could dislike in her parents. Her childhood had honestly been pretty terrible. A genius like herself really could have benefitted from a different upbringing, one that her parents were unable to provide. She used to ask "why?", and all her parents could say was "that's just how it is", because they didn't know any better, themselves. They had never deliberately harmed her, but they had been deeply neglectful of her needs, out of ignorance if nothing else.

She could resent them for that, and she knew that most people in her position would do just that. But ultimately, what would be the point? Her parents were flawed people, but they were doing the best they could. The best they could was insufficient, but that wasn't their fault, now was it?

They had tried their best, and as Rania said, that was what mattered the most.

"I love you." She told her parents as she hugged them goodbye. And to her own surprise, she found that she meant it.

--- Balron ---

Balron was making his final preparations at the university. He found the work relaxing, and more fun than most social gatherings.

Yesterday, the rest of the faculty and some of his students had thrown him a farewell party. It had been touching, but he had never been a sentimental person and frankly he didn't know what he was supposed to say or do at such a party.

They asked him a lot of questions, and were not happy that he answered most of them with a curt "that's classified".

Still, he appreciated all the effort they put into the party, even though he did not really enjoy it.

--- Rania ---

"Nice cosplay!" A fellow convention goer complimented Rania.

"Thank you! Yours looks nice, too!" She responded.

She was dressed as Sugar Sally from Magical Girls Sugar Explosion Squad, and she was having a lot of fun at the convention.

Her vampire fangs and pale skin had been glamored over, so that she looked like a Perfectly Normal Elf cosplaying as an ordinary fictional Magical Girl, and not a vampire. She could have easily pretended to be a vampire cosplayer instead, but they probably wouldn't allow those at the convention. Vampires were evil and the organizers were aware that romanticizing them was a form of propaganda by the Living City. Cosplaying as a genuine monster like that would be incredibly insulting to all the people who died to vampires. She wasn't sure, but she suspected that it might actually be illegal.

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Unfortunately, none of her teammates had the time or the inclination to go to the convention with her, but luckily one of the friends she made among the Coros wanted to go with her. Her name was Jessica, and the young woman was the most knowledgeable person about the Magical Girls Sugar Explosion Squad series that Rania had ever met. She could cite even the most obscure facts about the series from memory.

Jessica seemed really intensely focused and stressed though, and Rania suspected that she wasn't enjoying the convention very much. She explained that she used to be just an intern for the Coros until they put a lot of additional responsibilities on her in a very short time. She enjoyed the pay and the prestige, but was sad because her work and hobbies had a lot of overlap now, which was normally great but also made it hard to relax. Her work was very important now, she said, but as usual for the Coros she could not give any details. That made it much more stressful than her previous, relaxed position as an intern. Rania could empathize. Saving the world by repeatedly risking your life on deadly adventures was stressful, too. She hoped that Jessica could find the time to relax at the convention, just like herself.

She suddenly noticed a huge woman in the distance, and smiled in delight. Finally she had found the people she was looking for!

She had promised Silent Martha they would meet at a convention back when they first met, and now here they were! The enormous mountain of a person dressed as a Magical Girl must be Esther, a member of Silent Martha's coven.

As she got closer, she noticed that there were many people standing around with recording spells active. They were taking pictures of the coven, because their cosplay was so cool!

Unfortunately however, there was also a woman there who seemed upset about something. She was wearing the same outfit as the hag, but instead of bonding over it, she got mad.

"That skirt is not lore accurate." She told Silent Martha while shaking her head. "It has only three ribbons on it. Everyone knows that Candy Cane Charlie wears four ribbons on her dress."

What a rude woman! She was probably jealous because people were taking more pictures of the hags than of her. They were admittedly pretty ugly by humanoid standards, but their costumes were excellent and paid great attention to detail. Many of the other attendees, such as the woman making all the rude comments, had much shorter skirts than they should. She even had boob windows. Those were not lore accurate at all!

"Besides, aren't you far too old to be cosplaying?" The woman added.

Oh no! What a rude thing to say. Silent Martha looked very upset! Upsetting a hag was normally a pretty bad idea and Rania was wondering if she should speak up.

"You are quite arrogant to talk to me like that." Silent Martha responded.

Then she smiled viciously and continued: "Why, if you believe that your costume is that much better than mine, then maybe..."

"Excuse me!" Jessica suddenly interrupted the hag, addressing the woman. "Actually she is cosplaying the version of Candy Cane Charlie from episode three of the Pepper and Spice spinoff series. She only wears three ribbons for a good reason, but I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't read those books, yet. And you really shouldn't criticize her for her looks. She clearly put a lot of effort into this and she nailed the costume."

Jessica looked very nervous as she said that. Maybe she suffered from social anxiety?

It seemed to take her every ounce of her willpower to continue: "Fortunately for you, that spinoff is known specifically for its exploration of forgiveness and conflict de-escalation."

The woman looked perplexed. "Why is that fortunate for me?"

Jessica shared a nervous look with Silent Martha. Silent Martha looked at Rania. Rania smiled and waved in greeting. Then she slowly nodded in support of Jessica. She was right. That spinoff really was all about forgiveness.

Silent Martha stared at her for a few seconds after her nod, then turned back to the rude woman: "It is as she says. You can count yourself lucky, for today I shall be merciful and full of forgiveness."

Rania smiled happily. Silent Martha had come so far!

"Martha here is much friendlier than you." Rania told the rude woman. "I think she understands the Spirit of Friendship much better than you. Honestly, you act more like a bully than a Magical Girl."

Out of the corner of her eyes, she could see Silent Martha looking proud and exceptionally pleased with herself.

The rude woman looked insulted and at a loss for words. She looked around, presumably to find other targets to bully. Her eyes focused on Esther, whose costume admittedly was not a good fit because of how hideously deformed the hag was by humanoid standards. But then the woman looked at the hag's muscles, hesitated for a moment, and thought better of it. She huffed loudly once, then left.

After the woman left, Rania and Jessica greeted the hags properly and had a nice talk. They talked about the Power of Friendship, and Magical Girls, and it was super fun!

The hags were very polite the entire time, too! It looked like they were adjusting really well to life among mortals, and Rania was very happy to see that.

She also made sure to include Jessica in their discussion. The woman seemed very nervous and stressed, so Rania made it a point to emphasize to the hags how nice Jessica was, and how knowledgeable she was about all things related to the Magical Girls Sugar Explosion Squad series. Why, she was practically an authority on the topic. The hags sounded very impressed by that.

All in all, she had a lot of fun at the convention. Unfortunately she could not stay for too long into the evening, because she still had something else planned while she was in Northpass: She wanted to walk through the whole city while she was still there and say goodbye to all the buildings whose spirits she got along with. It was only polite, and she might be gone on her upcoming adventure for a long time.

--- Balron ---

"*I want to convince the Dire Karen to channel her aggression and meanness into becoming an adventurer instead.*" Rania said.

Then she rolled her dice and exclaimed happily: "Natural 20!"

"*Adventurer is not actually a job.*" Balron responded. He felt bad for having to rain on her parade, but he had explained often enough before that she should wait until he told her to roll.

"*But I will let you keep the roll if you can come up with something more plausible you can try to convince her of.*" He added quickly when he noticed her disappointment.

"*Maybe she could become a policewoman?*" Rania asked the group.

"*She is an asshole.*" Galanys added. "*She would just let it out on innocent people and everyone would suffer when she lets her power go to her head. Maybe she could become a lawyer instead? That would make her general Karen-ness much less noticeable and harmful. It seems to be basically a job requirement for lawyers.*"

"*Are you discussing this in front of her in-character?*" Balron asked.

"*We use telepathy to talk in secret.*" Rania answered.

"*Telepathy does not exist in this setting.*"

"*Oops, I forgot! In that case we use our phones to secretly chat with each other.*"

"*Alright. You stand in front of the Dire Karen for several minutes, furiously writing text messages at each other while you ignore her. I'm going to let her make an insight check. She gets a plus four bonus to this because Karens are proficient at noticing when people badmouth them.*"

--- Rania ---

Why did this keep happening? Everyone was listening and paying rapt attention to their meeting. There was nobody not-listening, and working on the Unspoken Plan Guarantee, and so that role once again fell to her. She was so annoyed. Just once, she wanted to be able to listen and learn about the plan.

Maybe she should take a lesson from the way Galanys and Dov handled things, and just tell her team openly that she was disappointed and that it would be fair if they took turns not-listening in the future? She resolved to do so in the future, but right now it was important for her not to pay too much attention, so she couldn't bring it up.

Lilian was explaining the details of her Plot Hole and answering the last open questions. It was their final preparation before they would leave for Akash. That much she had overheard by accident, but luckily she had managed to tune out the details.

She found it really hard not to pay attention to the meeting. It was all so exciting! After all these many weeks of preparations that had dragged on forever and ever, they would finally go on an awesome adventure again!

She was busy daydreaming about their upcoming adventure as a way to distract herself, but then tragedy struck: One of the military advisors said something so dangerous that it bypassed all of her mental filters, promoted itself to her consciousness, and forced her to pay attention despite her best attempts to ignore the world around her.

"A very impressive plan, Miss Weaver. I think we should focus our remaining time to plan on other aspects of the operation, because you clearly have thought this part through and nothing could possibly..."

Lilian became pale as a ghost and immediately jumped onto the table. She lunged at the advisor and tried to punch him, faster than anyone could react. Even Rania was impressed by the woman's speed and reaction times. They must have been boosted by sheer shock and dread at what the advisor was about to say.

Unfortunately, just before she could reach him, she slipped on a banana peel that someone had left lying on the table, just barely outside of Lilian's field of vision, behind a stack of papers. Despite her supernatural reflexes, she slipped and harmlessly sailed past the man, who managed to finish his sentence:

"...go wrong with this part of the operation."

Nothing could possibly go wrong. He had said it loud and clear.

"FUCK!" shouted Lilian.